Music Streaming Up by 24 Percent, Climate Ripe for iTunes Radio

Judging from the statistics released by Billboard and Nielsen this morning, we're definitely in the midst of another music revolution--much like the one that followed in the wake of the MP3's first appearance. Based on their findings, fewer people are actually buying music, but almost everyone is streaming it. In the first six months of 2013 alone, streaming soared by 24 percent to 51 billion streams.

That's good news for Apple, which appears to be wrapping up the designs for its long-anticipated iTunes Radio, which was officially announced during WWDC last month. Good timing, too. According to Nielsen, overall album sales were down by a full 4.6 percent from a year ago by 210 million units while streaming figures for popular songs reached near-unfathomable figures. In other words, Apple might be a little late to the streaming party, but it's at least getting in on the action before it finds itself left in the dust.

Curiously, the data doesn't entirely prove that the days of the record store are over. The bulk of the news is grim for brick-and-mortar store owners--digital albums now account for 43 percent of all album sales, and that's a stunning 38 percent increase from the same six-month period from last year. Indeed, consumers seem to have rekindled an affection for whole albums as album sales jumped by 6.3 percent while sales of individual tracks slid to 2.3 percent. Hope instead lies in the unexpected reemergence of vinyl. CD sales may have declined by 14.2 percent, but young adults picking up vinyl editions of albums by the likes of Vampire Weekend and Daft Punk caused vinyl sales to spike by 33.5 percent.

Despite significant competition from the likes of Pandora, Spotify, and even Google, Apple seems to be in a good position to take advantage of this shift. After all, iTunes Radio's placement in iOS's existing Music app ensures that it'll allow for a one-stop access to both owned and streamed versions of a song, and (here's the biggie for Apple), there's evidence that Apple won't have to pay for the streaming of a song if it's already been bought by the listener.